PlayStation Blogcast 038: The Shuhei Yoshida Show

Guten tag! What. A. Show. This week’s PlayStation Blogcast comes to you by way of Cologne, Germany, home to the annual Gamescom videogame expo and countless meat products. Jeff and I made the 10-hour flight for good reason: We got hands-on time with loads of great games, from God of War: Ascension to Dishonored to Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified, not to mention sitting in on PlayStation’s well-received Gamescom press conference that introduced cool new games like Tearaway, Puppeteer, Until Dawn and more. Good, good stuff.

But perhaps more importantly, we finally got a chance to record a big fat Blogcast interview with Shuehei Yoshida, president of PlayStation’s Worldwide Studios. This conversation ranks among my all-time favorite Blogcast discussions for three reasons:

1. Shuhei walked us through his vision for PlayStation’s internal software development, including its focus on creativity and original IP.2. It was our first (and hopefully not last!) interview to include EU PlayStation.Blog manager Fred Dutton.
3. At two points during the interview, Shuhei says…well, I probably shouldn’t spoil it. You’ll just have to listen.

But that’s just the beginning of this week’s double-stuffed, beer-battered episode. After talking shop with Shuehei, we shift gears to The Last of Us, Naughty Dog’s upcoming survival tale, with an eye-opening interview with stars Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson — or, as you might know them, Joel and Ellie. From there, we delve into the development secrets of Sleeping Dogs, United Front Games‘ highly reviewed open-world crime drama set in the mean streets of Hong Kong.

Oh, and we share full details on next week’s jam-packed North American PSN lineup, too. Listen in, let us know what you think, and we’ll see you back in the States next week!

Shuhei is the man! Never in my life have I saw someone so high up in a company be so down to earth. Very honest, open, & approachable. That, & the info he relates to us is about the greatest brand out there, Playstation! I’m so looking forward to the future of gaming with Sony!

I’ll listen to this tonight. Thanks to SCEE I was able to watch the presentation & the panel discussion. Yoshida-san’s contributions made Gamescon more interesting than watching E3. Maybe add a panel discussion to E3 next year & stream it all?

Ha Jeff can you tell Sony that ever since the new update for ps vita I cant play co-op or do the daily missions on unit 13 .Also could you patch the youtube app for HD its currently in 480p and needs better performace

also this is very dangerous:
“Sony wanted to focus on a different type of game and we don’t really fit with that,”

Don’t ever do that. An expansive portfolio that handles the gambit of styles, genres, themes, and what players are just simply drawn to is the best thing ever. Otherwise we get stagnation and a loss of interest. It is the reason I stopped buying Nintendo First and started turning my attention to PlayStation in the 90;s.

Hey Sid, I never got to thank you yet for answering my question in the comments last week about MotorStorm, unfortunately I have learned that Evolution Studios is no doubt one of the hardest studios to get in contact with – well contacting them is the easy part, but getting a response seems to near impossible. That’s why I went to the Blogcast as a last resort because you guys were good at getting in touch with other companies but even you guys didn’t get a response! Haha

No big deal though, although it does seem rather unfortunate that this platinum trophy will never ever be achievable again because of Evolution Studio’s lack of foresight on the matter, maybe PlayStation should set some rule for that sort of issue (Trophy patches in the process of your online servers being shut off)

Anyway, I will give it a listen tomorrow while working, can’t wait to hear it!!

Mr President dont let Nihilistic take over the Resistance Franchise, you have some of the most talented game studios in the industry but those guys are as bad as it can get, as a long time playstation fan and vita owner i’m feeling very positive about the vita’s future because 2 of your ELITE studios are developing the next wave of Vita AAA titles, Tearaway looked absolutely amazing, you can clearly see that geniuses created that game, my respect to Mm they are as talented as it can get and Killzone Mercenary looks clean, spectacular, amazing i know GG will set up the standard on fps games on the little system ( yeap i have high hopes for Killzone Mercenary) now i still dont understand why you guys dont show Soul Sacrifice on your american and european conferences that game looks absolutely amazing.

And as psvita owner i would love to see Sucker, Sony Santa Monica and Naughty Dog creating new experiences on the little system as well, they are as talented as MM so i wouldnt expect anything less than amazing from them. oh and one more thing you guys really need a dedicated RPG studios to bring exclusive RPGs to the vita and ps3/ps4.

I never owned a PSP and bought both the Motorstorm Arctic Edge and Twisted Metal: Head On PSP games from PSN here in the USA way back in January in anticipation of playing it on my “day 1″ vita. Every week since I’ve checked to see if these games have been made compatible yet here in the USA (either through the vita store or transferring via my PS3) and every week I’m disappointed.

My pals in Europe have been playing Motorstorm Arctic Edge on their Vitas for ages – please rattle the cages of the appropriate parties and make these compatible – We’ve been waiting over 6 months. (and how about the Pac man and Vanguard minis while they are at it)

Thanks! You’re right that not every game is available on the PS Vita Store yet. Do you have a PS3, and if so, have you tried DLing them to there and then using Content Manager to transfer them to Vita from your PS3?

@10: They can’t publish everything exclusively. And it doesn’t look like much of a loss to me. The PS3 is still getting the game, Sony is still funding tons of first and second party titles that are much more interesting than that game.

I’m disappointed we’re not getting Episode 3 of The Walking Dead on Tuesday, or at least it hasn’t been announced yet. Telltale said it would be out “mid-August”. I hope it doesn’t get delayed past August, but if it does, I hope they can add all the polish they can to it.

Ok so this is kinda random but iam trying to recruit for my mw3 all girls clan we are lined up for havig 4 sponsors and are still recruiting for more girls so if any girls check this post out and would like to join and awesome all girl clan please add gi_jenny I promise you won’t regret it we are moving up in the world we have a youtube channel a website and twitter a facebook and our own artist and video specialist so if you are ready to have tons of fun and own face add me telling me you would like to join and you are responding to my blog post thank you ;)

I’ve got Motorstorm Arctic Edge, Twisted Metal: Head On and the Pac Man and Vanguard minis downloaded on my PS3 – and every week after the store updates, I check using content manager to see if I’m able to transfer them over – – – and still no dice.

Motorstorm Arctic Edge is particularly painful since I bought it off of PSN in January and it was one of the reasons I bought a Vita at launch (never had a PSP).